My journey as a marathoner...

The elevation profile above is the workout I did on Thursday, April 28, 2011. Freshman year, Coach Gardner introduced me and the rest of the cross country team at UMass Lowell to the infamous "Christian Street Hill" in Lowell,Mass. Many of you have probably noticed the name from my weekly training logs. When I first did the hill, I only ran it halfway because it was absolutely painful (especially for a freshman). The hill is 222ft up covered in just half a mile to the top. When I was getting ready for my New Bedford Half Marathon, I was able to do the full hill 8 times, which was probably one of my best workouts at the time. I run about 3 miles from the gym to the hill, go up and down the hill several times and then back the same 3 miles to where I started. This has become one of my favorite staple workouts during base phase. The entire run is all continuous which makes it even better. There has always been a saying that runners don't really need to do a whole lot of tr...

Monday April 18 10 miles, 64:44 + strides Tuesday April 19 8 miles, 52min 8x400 with full standing rest: 82, 77, 77, 75, 74, 72, 72, 69 Wednesday April 20 AM 5 miles, 35min PM 5 miles, 35min, drills + pool Thursday April 21 AM 6 miles, 40min PM 7 miles, 47min, strides Friday April 22 10 miles, 65:20 + drills Saturday April 23 10 miles, 69min + pool Sunday April 24 15 miles at 85% on Boston marathon course, 1:26:40 5:56, 6:01, 5:44, 5:50, 5:48, 5:55, 5:45, 5:46, 5:47, 5:48, 5:37, 5:40, 5:47, 5:37, 5:39 76 miles

Monday Apr 11 off, travel from Brussels-London-Boston Tuesday Apr 12 5 miles, 36min + strides Wednesday Apr 13 60 min bike at 120rpm Thursday Apr 14 5 miles, 33min + strides Friday Apr 15 off Saturday Apr 16 5 miles, 35min + strides Sunday Apr 17 off 15 miles For now, I have no racing plans on mind. However, I am hoping to just spend the next months building my training back up. If I feel good and confident enough, I will try some road racing in July or August. However, this will also depend on whether or not Cape Verde decides to send me for the World Championship in late August or even the African Games in mid September. Now that I have done a full marathon, I think I can finally consider myself a "distance runner". My racing options have opened up and I will be considering any races from track to marathon distances.

Since August of 2010, all the training was geared towards Rotterdam Marathon. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to train before doing my first marathon. Below is a summary of the training plan I used. June to August (Build Up Phase) -build up mileage to marathon range to 130 miles per week -build up on long run to 22 miles -added in strides and drills -no workouts or races in this phase September to November (General Strength Phase) -Added in a two-week workout cycle to "touch all bases of fitness" -Week 1: 10x400(at70), 8x1k (at3min), 5km tempo (15flat), 1 long fartlek or 20+mile long run -Week 2: 6x1mile (5flat), 20 to 30 100m reps(15sec), 1 progression run or race -Added cross country and road races to build strength (took 2 down weeks in this period, end of Dec) December to February (Speed Building Phase) -Started Dec with two "down weeks" to recover from fall training -Main focus here was building speed on track then taking it out on road -Added long...

Monday April 4 10 miles, 71min + drills Tuesday April 5 AM: 6 miles, 42min + strides Noon: ART session with Dr.Pete PM: 9 miles, 58min 5k tempo at MP (16:07.30), goal to "run as if I have 23 miles left" Late PM: massage from Amy (Massage Envy Burlington) Wednesday April 6 AM 10 miles, 67min PM Travel Boston-London-Bruxelles Thursday April 7 10 miles, 69min + strides Friday April 8 6 miles, 43min + strides Saturday April 9 4 miles, 30min + drills Sunday April 10 28 miles, 2:31min Rotterdam Marathon - 17th place (1st American) 2:18:43 13 minutes warm up Splits: 5 kilometer 15:59 (15:59) 10 kilometer 31:30 (15:31) 15 kilometer 47:17 (15:47) 20 kilometer 1:02:48 (15:31) Halve marathon 1:06:27 25 kilometer 1:19:06 (16:18) 30 kilometer 1:35:54 (16:48) 35 kilometer 1:53:05 (17:11) 40 kilometer 2:10:48 (17:43) 83 miles I guess I can now officially say I am a "marathoner" since I completed my first marathon this past weekend. I fell just a bit short of my initial g...

M onday Mar 28 AM 6 miles, 45min PM 7 miles, 53min, drills + pool Tuesday Mar 29 AM 10 miles, 67min, strides Noon : ART with Dr.Pete PM 6 miles, 43min, drills Wednesday Mar 30 AM off PM 20 miles at 80-85%MP, 1:58:32 on Davis Rd. 1-6:20 2-6:07 3-5:58 4-5:59 5-5:53 6-5:56 7-5:56 8-5:52 9-5:56 10-5:51 11-5:53 12-5:54 13-5:52 14-5:56 15-5:53 16-5:55 17-5:57 18-5:53 19-5:48 20-5:46 Thursday Mar 31 AM 6 miles, 43min PM 8 miles, 58min, strides Late PM Massage from AMy ( Massage Envy Burlington ) Friday Apr 1 AM off PM 10 miles, 67min, drills Saturday Apr 2 AM 9 miles, 54min workout#1: medium effort progression progressed every 1.5 miles on treadmill with incline on 1% @85%MP-8:47 @90%MP-8:28 @95%MP-8:06 @MP-7:40 (33:01 for 6 miles) PM 11 miles, 60:10 workout#2: 5 miles at 85%, 5 miles at MP continuous on Davis Rd. with no warm up 1-6:00.87 2-5:47.99 3-5:31.63 4-5:36.44 5-5:31.43 (first 5 mile, 28:28) 6-5:05.39 7-5:09.20 8-4:54.21 9-4:53.09 10-4:52.10 (second 5 mile 24:54, 10 mi...